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John Henry Irons
__TOC__ Pre-War history John Irons was born into the old federation as a member of an incredibly historic spacer family. His family got humans to Mars and invented basic methods of space flight. For centuries they had dominated the military as engineers, warriors and leaders all. And John was destined for nothing less. He spent his early years on a starship and passed the time by taking apart technology. That is until the chief engineer showed him how to put them back together. Then he learned all he could and dreamed of one day being a chief engineer aboard a federation war vessel. When he was offered a 3 day cruise with some good pay, Irons couldn't resist. Alas, while the captain did live in luxury, the rest of the ship was a dump. When they reached the next port the Captain made John work a double shift, during which the chief engineer and his assistants escaped the vessel. The captain in desperation, confined Irons to his quarters until the ship was out of port. And he held Irons on the ship for 8 more cruises. The only reason he got out was because of a surprise inspection in which Irons pleaded the inspector to free him. The captain was made to deal with his actions but not before putting a black mark on John's perfect record. Stuck on a planet light years from home with a bad record as a spacer, he did the only thing he could. He enlisted in the federation Navy. He spent 6 months relearning all that he knew very well and served aboard several ships before finally coming to the Derringer. The chief engineer there, Sherman, took a hard look at his record and realized he knew the captain who gave Irons the black mark. In fact his third cousin was in a similar situation. In light of John's set of skills they tested him again and again and when they knew he was ready, sent him to OCS. We don't know what happened between then and his time as a Lieutenant jg. At that time he served aboard the Light Cruiser Barracuda ''and his commanding officer was Captain Zephram. When their cruiser arrived to relieve another ship guarding the homeworld of the Salamanders, Captain Zephram was suspicious of the way the system was patrolled. When he was told that they were to enter in a pattern, the captain nodded politely and set of on a different course. Sure enough, some smugglers were found and the illegal ship was taken. Irons was a member of the prize crew. Halfway back to base, the smugglers attempted mutiny, with the knowledge of the dreaded penance of breaking a species interdiction. Irons won the day, although only half the smugglers made it back to face charges. The next event we know about Irons pre-war was his altercation in the HD46233 B hyperbridge to HDE 254755 O. He was serving as JTO aboard an escort destroyer. There were six warships tasked with protecting a convoy moving through notorious pirate territory. They expected an attack in subspace which made it even worse when it happened in hyper. A squadron of the notorious Raven Clan pirates dropped in on either side of the escorts and pounded them to bits. The captain tried to keep the ship above the convoy allowing the destroyer to fire at all the pirates at once. This also exposed the ship to enemy fire from both sides. The destroyer took a beating, and the bridge was cut off from command. With that Irons assumed command because of his seniority, he pulled a maneuver. He fluctuated the drives and vented atmosphere out the forward airlocks, just as the enemy fired. Several of the pirate ships were severely injured. Several pirates still escaped with several of the unarmed government vessels who apparently carried the most important cargo. Irons was given a medal and his own command because of his actions. *WARNING: From here on out there will be 'MAJOR' spoilers for almost every book in the series.* As a Captain Jg Irons worked on a fair few projects including hyperbridges, which were famously used by the Xenos to invade the Milky Way. We lose track of the admiral for another large chunk of time. The next event we know from his history is the beginning of his work at Lemnos and even that is pretty vague. He definitely made nova bombs and created the designs for various classes of cruisers as well as design Lemnos itself. At some point during his time at Lemnos, he was called back into action to lead a fleet in battle. In that unknown fight he lost both his right eye, his right arm and both his legs. He was then transported back to Lemnos where the Trinity was implanted along with his incredible implants replacing all of his lost body parts. Upon discovering he was a cyborg the admiral went into a fit of rage, one of the few times the admiral let his emotions control him. He was promoted to Admiral by Vice Admiral Danforth and awarded the Star of Valor for an unknown action. Post War Admiral Irons awoke about 700 years after the battle of Senka to discover he had a promotion. With the help of the Trinity he scanned the system and discovered that an old fleet ship, the Io 11, was coming in to pick him up. And right behind them followed a pirate ship. The admiral decided that his best course of option would be to go aboard the Io 11. Once aboard he exited his pod and scanned the ship. What he discovered shocked him. Not only was the Federation gone but, technology as a whole had seen little to no advancements in the last seven centuries. In fact it appeared as if almost everything had been forgotten. He instantly went to work repairing the ship so he could escape the pirates. Once in hyperspace, he bargained with the captain for his services in exchange for a ride. Irons helped the crew repair the ship as best he could in hyperspace and taught them all skills that had been long forgotten or at least not taught to the masses. The first stop along their trade route was Syntia's World where the Admiral, along with the help of Io's engineering staff, repaired the hyperdrive and exterior of Io while in orbit. Then he followed that up with stops at New Texas, Avalon, P34cv9, Proxima, Centennial and Gaston. In each he taught the locals as much as he could and learned all he could of the devastation incurred upon the Federation. During his stop in Centennial the locals took a friend of Irons hostage. They wanted to use her and others as a bargaining chip to get off before the pirates returned. A security team was sent in armed with non-lethal weaponry Irons made for them. They saved most of the captured but not without casualties. Admiral Iron's friend Molly was killed during the action. The admiral was hit hard by the loss but pressed on. Finally arriving in Pyrax, Rodriguez (a crew member of Io 11 sometimes called Juanita) put the Admiral into contact with her family. The Valdez family gave the Admiral food and board and in return Irons got to work repairing their tug. After repairing the tug and doing other small miracles, the Admiral discovered that the station's reactor was being run by a dying sleeper. Not only that it was Horatio Logan, an old friend of his. The admiral went to work, bringing reactors online and negotiating deals with Io to get Anvil back on its feet. After helping Horatio and getting the basics done; the admiral began reforming both the education and medical systems. After several weeks of work a ship, the ''Carib Queen, came in to Pyrax from Agnosta screaming about pirates. The admiral quickly assembled his staff to begin planning. They assessed the size of the enemy force, as well as their level of threat. The admiral determined that the only way to survive such opposition was with their own warship and recommended to him was the old resolution class heavy cruiser ''Firefly''. Stranded outside the oort cloud, the federation vessel was Pyrax's only hope. Meanwhile the wealthy of Anvil station began to buy tickets on the Carib Queen in the hopes of escaping the pirate's wrath. This lineup of the rich and famous included none other than the Port Admiral, the piece of filth in charge of Anvil Station. A riot ensued which began to be suppressed by lethal force, however Irons stepped in with non-lethal measures. Irons assumed command over the station and thereby the system. Shortly after the departure of the C''arib Queen the Port Admiral took a short walk out of an airlock without a suit. Then the Admiral set about preparing to retrieve ''Firefly ''by grabbing the only remaining vessel that could travel past the Oort cloud and assembling a crew. 1 fleet launch, several weeks of repair and a crew featuring Sergio and O'Reilly Valdez, Captain Gutierrez, Shelby Logan, Angie, Jimmy, Wally and Dieter later he was ready to go. They set out, found ''Firefly's AI still working and set course for Anvil. After repairing ''Firefly '' they began repairing more and more ships including several Hunter Killers, and a Corvette. Crews were assembled for the fleet and training was going well when The Battle of Pyrax began. The Admiral commanded with efficiency and expertise during the battle and managed to destroy or capture all enemy vessels securing the Pyrax system. With a victorious fleet in tow the Admiral began to make real change to the system. First came a dry-dock and the laying down of hulls. He carefully transferred over command of the system to civilians under the condition that they would agree to the Federation Constitution. They even had to deal with a small disaster with a solar flare wrecking the Port-Au-Prince colony. Back on Anvil, the Admiral had a run in with the leader of the Anvil Cat Clan and met Jethro for the first time. After several months of work Pyrax was shaping up nicely. Then the Admiral got a call to come visit Vesta for an event. On Vesta the Admiral heard a crying young boy in the tunnels. He went to investigate and found a traumatized child. After helping him up he brought him back to his parents. They were suspicious of Irons and security guards began to bring him in for questioning. When he tried to bring up his implant footage to confirm the specifics of the incident, he was asked to follow the guards. After being placed in a cell the Admiral went to check the news feed. The child and his family were on Knox talking about the port admiral abusing them but referred to him as the "Admiral". Riots had already begun to break out all over Pyrax. Irons, realizing he had been set up quickly got out of his cell only to be confronting by a group of politicians. They explained that unless Irons left Pyrax they would blow up the Vesta colony. The Admiral, seeing only a possible Pyrrhic victory made a tactical retreat. He boarded a shuttle for ''Destiny, ''but not before having Sprite blast the entire video of the meeting system-wide. The Admiral was confined to his quarters on ''Destiny ''for a short while before going to help in engineering. He found several parts missing as well as some sabotage. He encountered some resistance from the crew at first, but was allowed to get to work. He quickly proved himself to the engineering staff with his dedication and talent at his work however more and more sabotage attempts were found and several attempts were made on the admiral's life. Meanwhile his social situation with the remainder of the crew continued along its turbulent path; as some of them believed the darker tales told of him and even more were outraged by Sprite's invasion of privacy, forcing them to watch his encounter with the corrupt Pyraxian government. They arrived in Agnosta to receive hate from the locals but, after showing them that they weren't pirates by returning locals turned slaves (retrieved during The Battle of Pyrax) trade was opened up. The leader of the Agnostan delegates, George Custard, met the Admiral who smoothed relations with him. The admiral gave them a care package, several satellites and mined a few comets before they entered hyperspace for B452c. They made it to B452c with few difficulties, although the ships basic AI saved ''Destiny ''from destruction via a navigators eagerness to enter the Beta band. WIP Category:Characters